After Aquinas, Anselm is the most significant medieval thinker. Utterly convinced of the truth of the Christian religion, he was none the less determined to try to make sense of his Christian faith, and the result is a rigorous engagement with problems of logic which remain relevant for philosophers and theologians even today. This translation provides the first opportunity to read all of Anselm's most important works in one volume.

v. 1. Monologion. Proslogion. Debate with Gaunilo. Meditation on human redemption.

In the Proslogion, St. Anselm presents a philosophical argument for the existence of God. Anselm's proof, known since the time of Kant as the ontological argument for the existence of God, has played an important role in the history of philosophy and has been incorporated in various forms into the systems of Descartes, Leibniz, Hegel, and others. Included in this edition of the Proslogion are Gaunilo's "A Reply on Behalf of the Fool" and St. Anselm's "The Author's (...) Reply to Gaunilo." All three works are in the original Latin with English translation on facing pages. Professor Charlesworth's introduction provides a helpful discussion of the context of the Proslogion in the theological tradition and in Anselm's own thought and writing. (shrink)

An annotated translation, by a distinguished translator and scholar of medieval philosophy, of the complete treatises of Anselm of Canterbury, with selected letters and prayers. A bibliography and index will be included.

Williams's translations are scrupulously faithful and accurate without being slavishly literal, and yet are lively and graceful.--Paul Vincent Spade, Indiana University.

Thomas Williams' edition offers an Introduction well suited for use in an introductory philosophy course, as well as his own preeminent translation of the text.

In Animal Rationality: Later Medieval Theories 1250-1350, Anselm Oelze offers the first comprehensive and systematic exploration of theories of animal rationality in the later Middle Ages.

Among critics of corporate social responsibility (CSR), there is growing concern that CSR is largely ineffective as a corrective to the shortcomings of capitalism, namely, the negative effects of business on society and the undersupply of public goods. At the same time, researchers suggest that despite the shortcomings of CSR, it is possible to make it more effective in a stepwise manner. To explain the frequent failures of current CSR practices and to explore the possibilities of remedying them, I examine (...) the close relationship between CSR, the persistent expansion of capitalism, and the pressure that capitalism puts on companies to legitimize their business operations. My analysis shows that the failure of CSR to serve as a corrective to the problematic effects of capitalism is, in fact, an inevitable consequence of the problematic dynamics of the capitalist system. On this basis, I suggest that capitalism limits the possibilities of making CSR more effective, argue for change on the systemic level of capitalism, and explore the ways in which CSR research can contribute to this political endeavor. (shrink)

For Philippa Foot, the essence of morality consists in acting on the reasons on which, qua human being, one ought to act; and this ought is one of “natural normativity”—the same ought that also occurs in statements about what a plant or an animal, qua exhibiting a certain form of life, “ought” to be like in various respects, or how its organs “ought” to function. Of this conception Foot avails herself in order to refute the moral sceptic—an undertaking that raises (...) various critical questions, in particular: 1) Is it the naturally normative ought that also occurs in a practical judgement of the form “I ought to F”? If so, how are we to account for what Foot calls the “practicality” of such a judgement? If not, what kind of intelligible step could an agent take, in order to get from a theoretical statement of natural normativity to a practical judgement that ceteris paribus issues in action? 2) Can we understand the validity of every moral requirement in terms of natural normativity, i.e. of a teleological necessity of individuals’ acting well? 3) If we can, will this understanding rely on premises sufficiently certain to justify morality in a sense suggested by Foot’s anti-sceptical considerations?—I argue that “Natural Goodness” does not satisfactorily answer these questions, and conclude by sketching an account of practical moral knowledge that does not seem to provoke them. (shrink)

Si l'on reconnaît que la métaphore n'est pas un simple ornement du langage et que l'histoire de la pensée philosophique et scientifique s'est nouée autour de certaines "métaphores directrices" et de leurs changements de sens, il faut réviser notre image habituelle des rapports entre rhétorique et pensée conceptuelle, parcourir à nouveaux frais k cours de notre tradition et envisager autrement la succession des grandes métaphysiques. À cet égard, la pensée de Hans Blumenberg offre des instruments essentiels. Anselm Haverkamp et (...) Jean-Claude Monod se sont attachés tout à la fois à éditer, situer et commenter les travaux de Blumenberg, tout en leur donnant des prolongements personnels. Ces prolongements et développements ne concernent pas seulement la réflexion sur la "métaphore absolue", telle que la "métaphorologie" de Blumenberg l'a illustrée, mais aussi l'histoire de la rhétorique et de la poétique, les moyens d'expression de la philosophie, les limites de la phénoménologie et les impasses de "l'histoire de l'être" heideggérienne, la portée anthropologique du mythe, les transformations de la mimèsis. Sont ici rassemblées des contributions de deux philosophes qui, l'un et l'autre, ont "pensé avec" Blumenberg."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Anselm Müller; VIII*—Mental Teleology, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 92, Issue 1, 1 June 1992, Pages 161–184, https://doi.org/10.1093/aristote.

Under conditions of growing interconnectedness of the global economy, more and more stakeholders are exposed to risks and costs resulting from business activities that are neither regulated nor compensated for by means of national governance. The changing distribution of risks poses a threat to the legitimacy of business firms that normally derive their legitimacy from operating in compliance with the legal rules of democratic nation states. However, during the process of globalization, the regulatory power of nation states has been weakened (...) and many production processes have been shifted to states with weak regulatory frameworks where businesses operate outside the reach of the democratic nation state. As a result, business firms have to address the various legitimacy challenges of their operations directly and cannot rely upon the legitimacy of their regulatory environment. These developments challenge the dominant approach to corporate governance that regards shareholders as the only stakeholder group in need of special protection due to risks not covered by contracts and legal regulations. On the basis of these considerations, we argue for a democratization of corporate governance structures in order to compensate for the governance deficits in their regulatory environment and to cope with the changing allocation of risks and costs. By way of democratic involvement of various stakeholders, business firms may be able to mitigate the redistribution of individual risk and address the resulting legitimacy deficits even when operating under conditions of regulatory gaps and governance failure. (shrink)

Do the virtues, as is often said, conflict with each other? The history of philosophy knows various attempts to conceive of them so as to exclude such conflict. Nicolai Hartmann ("Ethik", 1925) is the most prominent representative "and" critic of this tradition in our century. Each Aristotelian "mean", for him, represents a "synthesis" of "conflicting values"; but only the "one and only virtue" synthesizing "all" values would exclude all tragic conflict. In contrast, the Aristotelian and medieval conception of "connexio virtutum" (...) by "prudence" allows the virtues to "limit each other" and thus be "compatible" without merging into one super-virtue. (shrink)

Anselm Müller; VIII*—Mental Teleology, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 92, Issue 1, 1 June 1992, Pages 161–184, https://doi.org/10.1093/aristote.

In order to enable firms to successfully deal with issues of corporate sustainability, the firms' stakeholders would need to participate in sustainability accounting and management. In practice, however, participative sustainability accounting and management are often unfeasible. The resulting consequence is the risk of misbalancing single aspects of sustainability. The purpose of this article is to show that reflexivity in sustainability accounting and management, that is, an ongoing reflection on the relationship between the goals of corporate sustainability and the overarching objective (...) of sustainable development can, at least, mitigate this problem. Reflexivity has the potential to initiate processes of collective learning and could eventually bring about the realization of business models that integrate economic, ecological, and social considerations. (shrink)

I am very happy indeed to contribute to this series of lectures, especially because I owe most of my training in philosophy to Elizabeth Anscombe, whose work has given the series its name. I am deeply indebted to the marvellous generosity of her teaching, to the example she set me of an unrelentingly thorough and serious thinker, to the unobtrusive way she introduced me to Wittgenstein's later philosophy. Through Elizabeth Anscombe I also made the acquaintance of my friend Philippa Foot, (...) whose work in moral philosophy has, over decades and more than anyone else's, influenced my own. I hope it will be possible to recognize in what I am going to say here not indeed the excellence but at least traces of the beneficial influence of both these philosophers. (shrink)

In these three dialogues, renowned for their dialectical structure and linguistic precision, Anselm sets out his classic account of the relationship between freedom and sin--its linchpin his definition of freedom of choice as the power to preserve rectitude of will for its own sake. In doing so, Anselm explores the fascinating implications for God, human beings, and angels of his conclusion that freedom of choice neither is nor entails the power to sin. In addition to an Introduction, notes, (...) and a glossary, Thomas Williams brings to the translation of these important dialogues the same precision and clarity that distinguish his previous translation of Anselm's _Proslogion_ and _Monologion_, which Professor Paul Spade of Indiana University called "scrupulously faithful and accurate without being slavishly literal, yet lively and graceful to both the eye and ear. (shrink)

Alfred Sohn-Rethel did not just elaborate a materialist theory of knowledge, he also introduced the term ‘real abstraction’ into Marxist debate. However, he locates the origin of commodity abstraction solely in the sphere of circulation, conceiving of production itself as a mere metabolism with nature. This conception, in which the critique of capitalism aims exclusively at distribution, and which rejects the Marxian concept of ‘abstract labour’, remains widespread. It is our express intention here to undertake a critique of such a (...) conception for the benefit of a critique of the very mode of capitalist production. (shrink)

"Le Proslogion de Saint Anselme de Cantorbéry - l'œuvre la plus célèbre d'un des premiers et des plus grands philosophes du moyen âge - a joué dans l'histoire de la philosophie médiévale et moderne un rôle de tout premier plan. Il contient, en effet, ce fameux argument, dit..." ontologique ", qui - fortune à nulle autre pareille - sema la division et la discorde parmi les philosophes et les théologien". Alexandre Koyré, Introduction au Proslogion.

This edited collection is an ecumenical exploration of the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love by eight distinguished theologians. It deepens the theological virtues for today by integrating them into the context of the urgency of justice while also discussing justice in the context of faith, hope, and love.

Es gibt eine normative Verwendung des Wortes "handeln", die nicht das Ausführen von Handlungen thematisiert, sondern beliebiges Tun und Lassen unter einen Bewertungsmaßstab stellt. Charakteristisch ist die Verbindung mit ethisch wertenden Ausdrücken: "gut / schlecht / gerecht … handeln". Hier grenzt "handeln" das, worauf der Begriff sich bezieht, nicht gegen anderes ab, sondern kennzeichnet eine Bewertungsdimension: die ethische. Neben dieser gibt es zwar noch andere Bewertungsdimension. Doch genießt die ethische eine Sonderstellung – wie der Zusammenhang zwischen "gut gehandelt" und "guter (...) Mensch" zeigt.Handeln ist insoweit kein poiesis-, sondern ein praxis-Begriff . Sein telos ist, absichtsunabhängig, das gute Handeln selbst. Dagegen intendiert man in der poiesis über sie hinaus deren telos. Doch ist eine poiesis ihrer Motivation nach zugleich als Handeln bewertbar. In diesem Sinne sind Handlungen, ob man will oder nicht, durch das gute Handeln finalisiert. Handlungstheorie führt somit unweigerlich vor anthropologische und ethische Fragen. (shrink)

Thema des Aufsatzes ist die Ethik der ethischen Debatte. Kuhse und Singer fordern eine unbehinderte Diskussion ihrer These, „daß es unter bestimmten Umständen ethisch gerechtfertigt ist, das Leben mancher schwerstbehinderter Neugeborener zu beenden". Auch eine „Erklärung deutscher Philosophen zur sog. "Singer-Affäre" aus dem Jahr 1989 spricht sich für die öffentliche Diskussion aus. Gegen die Selbstverständlichkeit dieser Forderung ist zu bedenken: 1. Wo grundlegende Gewißheiten aufeinandertreffen, muß zwar nicht die Argumentation, aber doch der Anspruch, durch Argumente zu begründen oder zwingend zu (...) widerlegen, aufgegeben werden; andere Formen der Reaktion widerstreiten daher nicht notwendig der Rationalität. 2. Im Vergleich zur fach-internen birgt die öffentliche Diskussion zusätzliche Rationalitätsrisiken. 3. Die Einstellung zur öffentlichen Diskussion einer grundlegenden moralischen Frage wird unweigerlich von der eigenen Antwort auf diese Frage mitbestimmt. 4. Die Kundgabe einer ethischen Auffassung ist selbst ethisch bewertbar. - Wenn man also die öffentliche Diskussion der Früheuthanasie genauso ablehnt wie z.B. die der Sklaverei, ist diese Intoleranz vertretbar. (shrink)

This is the first serious intellectual biography of Guy Debord, prime mover of the Situationist International (1957-1972) and author of _The Society of the Spectacle_, perhaps the seminal book of May 1968 in France. Anselm Jappe rejects recent attempts to set Debord up as a "postmodern" icon, arguing that he was a social theorist in the Hegelian-Marxist tradition—not a precursor of Jean Baudrillard but an heir of the young Georg Lukács of _History and Class Consciousness _(1923). Neither hagiographical nor (...) sectarian, _Guy Debord_ places its subject squarely in his historical context: the politicizing Letterist and Situationist "anti-artists" who, in the European aftermath of World War II, sought to criticize and transcend the Surrealist legacy. The book offers a lively, critical, and unusually reliable account of Debord's "last avant-garde" on its way from radical bohemianism to revolutionary theory. Jappe also discusses Debord's films, which are largely inaccessible at present. This English language edition of the book has been revised by the author and features an updated critical bibliography of Debord and the Situationists. (shrink)

Auf den ersten Blick könnten die Welten, die in diesem Buch aufeinandertreffen, kaum gegensätzlicher sein. Anselm Kiefer, einer der bedeutendsten und international erfolgreichsten Künstler der Gegenwart, beschäftigt sich in seinem Werk mit den wesentlichen Fragen der Gesellschaft. Seine Bilder sind geheimnisvolle Chiffren zur Entschlüsselung der Welt und ihrer immer neuen Rätsel, sie offenbaren Überlagerungen, Durchdringungen, Verschmelzungen. Peter Handke nannte ihn »einen stillen Wilden..., auf dem Sprung, eine Art neuen Alphabets der Malerei zu entwerfen«. Ihm gegenüber Mathias Döpfner, Vorstandsvorsitzender der (...) Axel Springer AG, ursprünglich jedoch Germanist, Musikwissenschaftler, Journalist. Aus dem Kontrast entsteht ein fesselnder, erhellender Dialog über Kunst und Politik, Natur und Mythos, Kultur und Geschichte, Theologie und Ökonomie, Philosophie und Literatur. (shrink)